


An ingenious plan

by lorinhazuzu



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Fluff, Jealousy, M/M, Scheming, larry stylinson - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-11-15
Updated: 2013-02-15
Packaged: 2017-11-18 18:00:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/563858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lorinhazuzu/pseuds/lorinhazuzu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry wants Louis, and he knows just how to get him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Sooooo, I know I should probably finish 'The 5 senses' or the 'Take me home' series first, buuuut I couldn't resist. So I'll leave you with the prologue, it's very short but I'll post the first chapter soon :)

Louis and Harry were both very similar and very different people. But Harry knew Louis better than anybody else, and he knew, knew with absolute certainty that if he was to confront Louis on how he feels, he’d immediately start running, as fast as he could, in the opposite direction.

It was quite simple really, he could not, definitely not go up to Louis, he had to wait until Louis came to him.

The best way to get a reaction out of Louis, he decided, was to make him jealous.


	2. Part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the first part everyone, hope you like it :)

The thing is, Harry was in love with Louis. Had been for quite a while now. He had been surprised of course to realise it, especially since his interest was usually directed at people of the opposite gender, but then he met Louis, and he was surprised, obviously but it hadn’t taken him long to accept the feeling; embrace it even.

The problem was that by the time he had that very important epiphany Louis was already with Eleanor, and he also seemed very happy to be with her.

It wasn’t a problem really. Harry knew he loved Louis and that he’d probably never love anyone as much, but it wasn’t this awfully dramatic asphyxiating feeling. He was happy, Harry was. He had great friends, supportive family, a prospering career, girls loving and adoring him, and of course the best best-friend he could ever have wished for.

He tried not to think about his feelings for Louis too often. Or at least his not-so-platonic feelings.

There were sometimes however when Harry couldn’t help but think that Louis felt something for him too; that there was no way he couldn’t. They were just too close, their relationship too different, too co-dependant. But then Louis would yell at him from somewhere in the house that he was heading out to see El, don’t wait up! So he’d push the idea away, ignore the little stinging feeling in his stomach, and go back to his IPod or his phone. He was very good at distracting himself.

It was one of those nights, the ones where he didn’t feel like doing anything or going anywhere so he hid away in his bedroom, sprawled on the double bed; Louis long gone, earphones firmly in place, head bobbing and feet swinging in the air as he scrawled away on a piece of paper. He liked writing songs, even if they never really got anywhere because he never managed to finish them, doodling all over the page instead, but he was a firm believer in the whole, ‘practice makes perfect’ so maybe someday he’d write something that he’d actually share with the others.

He didn’t hear the knock at his door due to the loud music playing in his ears, but he noticed the bed dipping next to him. He scrambled to pull out the earphones and press pause at the same time as he sat up to look at Louis.

“Hey Lou, you’re home early” he smiled, but Louis only shrugged, attention caught by the sheet of paper on his pillow.  
“Writing?” he asked, hand reaching out for the piece of paper.  
Harry didn’t stop him. He never went out of his way to show Louis whatever few sentences he managed to write, but if he ever found some of it laying around Harry didn’t mind. He was a bit more fussy about the other boys reading them, he wasn’t sure why, but he’d felt a bit uncomfortable, a bit awkward the few times it had happened.  
“Er, trying” he corrected, smiling sheepishly. He watched as Louis’ eyes ran over the scribbled words, many of them crossed over, most of them didn’t even make sense together, showing how much his mind wonders all over the place instead of focusing on one thing only. Louis smiled at the page before putting it aside and settling back against the headboard, Harry following suit, fitting himself under Louis’ arm.

He waited a few seconds. He was sure there was something wrong, but as usual he’d wait until Louis himself got around to telling him. He didn’t have to wait long.

“So..El and I broke up” Harry startled, he sure as hell wasn’t expecting that.  
“What – why?” he was confused alright. Just two nights before, Louis had come back home, smiling brightly and gloating about how great Eleanor was, which was true enough and pretty much the only reason why he put up with it. That and he was Louis’ best friend, which meant it was kind of his job to listen to him, Harry was sure there was a rule written about it somewhere.  
Louis shrugged, “I’m not quite sure”  
And, yeah, Louis’ always had been quite unpredictable and all, but this was just baffling. He didn’t even seem that upset, just mostly confused, puzzled maybe, as if he hadn’t thought about the whys until Harry had asked him about it.  
“She said something about not being able to compete for my attention anymore” Louis frowned, “guess she got tired of dating a pop star”

Mind still spinning Harry realized that he should probably be comforting his best mate, instead of just staring at him completely gobsmacked. But really, who could blame him?

“Um, I’m sorry Lou” he said, voice still showing the signs of his disbelief.  
“You sure sound sorry” Louis rolled his eyes at him.  
“I am! I just. You don’t exactly seem upset” he said, finally making his thoughts known.  
“Hmm” he hummed, hand playing with Harry’s hair, “I kind of knew it was coming”  
“You did? Why didn’t you tell me?”  
“Didn’t really know how to bring it up”   
Harry turned a bit, so he was facing Louis, “like we bring anything else up, you know? Quite bluntly” He said dryly, and Louis laughed, “cheeky! Besides you’re the blunt one in this relationship” He grinned, and it was Harry’s turn to roll his eyes, before sending a serious look Louis’ way.  
“Are you sure you’re okay Lou?” Louis smiled, not that happy or sarcastic or mischievous grin, but the soft tender smile people didn’t often get to see.  
“I’m fine Haz. I’ll be even better with some cuddles and a cup of tea” he wriggled his eyes suggestively, and Harry punched his arm lightly. Louis could never be serious for too long, not even when he’d just gotten his ass dumped. 

Still he stood up, and went to make them some tea, coming back minutes later and crawling back in bed next to Louis. Louis quickly fell asleep after he’d finished drinking his tea, and Harry followed soon after, crazy, confused thoughts running around in his head.


	3. Part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys like it, and I'm sorry about the mistakes. Whoops.

Louis’ broke up with Eleanor over two weeks ago. He told the boys the day after he told Harry. They’d all been very sympathetic and very supportive, but none as much as Harry.

“Lou?” Harry shook Louis’ shoulder gently to rouse him from sleep.

“C’mon Lou, it’s time to wake up” he sing-sang, smiling as Louis groaned.

“Don’t wanna”

“Not even if I cook you some breakfast?”

Harry watched amused as Louis perked up, eyes fluttering open.

“Chocolate pancakes?” he asked hopefully.

“Sure Lou. Will you wake up now?”

“Hmm, okay” he sighed out, stretching under the white covers.

“Good” Harry smiled brightly, leaning in to kiss the top of Louis’ head before leaving him and heading towards the kitchen where he begun to work on the pancakes.

He put the water to boil too, knowing Louis would be very snippy for the rest of the day if he didn’t have his tea.

He was flipping the pancakes around when he heard Louis walking in the room. He switched off the oven and turned around to look at Louis who was already sitting on the stool, smiling cheerfully as he poured himself some tea.

“Morning Lou” he walked over to Louis to quickly give him a hug.

“Good morning Curly!” It was obvious that whatever sleepiness he’d been feeling was gone down the drain together with the water of his shower.

“Sleep well?” Harry asked as he served Louis some of the pancakes.

“Great! I had this dream where instead of a band we were a team of superheroes” he laughed, leaning his head back once he felt Harry’s hands running through his hair.

“Aren’t you going to eat Haz?” he asked once he finished his first pancake and moved on to his second.

“Huh? Oh yeah” he blinked out of his daze, before sitting down next to Louis and serving himself some breakfast.

They arrived at the recording studio nearly an hour later. The place was relatively quiet and free of fans which made the simple task of walking into the building a lot easier.

Harry kept close to Louis as he had been doing for the past couple weeks. There were hugs, cuddles, hair ruffling, tickling, pocking, just touching in general, as much as he could.

Their relationship had always been very close, very handsy, but in the last couple of weeks the impossible had happened, and they’d become even closer. It didn’t go unnoticed by the others, though they never really said anything. Until today that is.

They were in the middle of a short break when Liam pulled a very confused Harry away from the others.

“Uh, Liam what’s going on?” he asked when they finally stopped. Liam had taken them into an empty room, making sure to lock the door behind him.

“I think we should talk Harry, and I don’t want Louis to find us” he said seriously, but it only confused Harry more.

“Talk about what?” and why can’t Louis know about it? He wanted to ask too, but held his tongue.

“What you’ve been doing lately…” he hesitated.

“What? What?!” he looked at Liam frustrated.

“Well, I mean, you’ve practically been hanging off Louis, Harry. Everyone’s noticed.”

“So? We’re close” Harry mumbled defensively.

“Yeah, but there’s close and there’s that”

They stared at each other for a few seconds.

“So what are you saying?”

Liam took a deep breath, “I’m saying I know how you feel about him”

Harry blinked, Liam’s words not sinking in for a minute before his eyes widened.

“You do?” he asked. The  thought of denying it not crossing his mind once.

Liam rolled his eyes at him, “I think everybody does Haz. Look, you’ve been mollycoddling him the whole week, and I really don’t think that’s going to help any” he waited for a second, but when Harry didn’t say anything he continued.

“Aren’t you going to tell him? Cause I really think this is your chance.”

“What” he spluttered, “of course I’m not going to tell him!”

“Why not?”

“Because” he mumbled, “Louis doesn’t feel the same way”

Liam rolled his eyes, “you’re crazy if you think he doesn’t feel the same way”

“Really?” he asked, a little bubble of hope progressively growing inside him.

“Yeah, I just don’t think he’s admitted it to himself yet” and just as quickly as it grew, the bubble burst with a little pop sound only Harry heard.

“Like… he’s in denial or something?”

Liam nodded.

“Well…what am I supposed to do about it? Come up to him and shove my tongue down his throat?”

Liam’s lips twitched before he schooled his face into a serious expression again.

“No” he said quickly, “you know Louis, he’ll probably avoid you for the next decade if you do that”

True that.

“So…what?”

“Well, I mean, if you can’t go to him, you have to wait for him to come to you”

Harry groaned, “I’ve been waiting for that for the past two years!”

“yeah…” Liam paused, “I think we’ll need to give Louis a little push”

“What kind of push?”

“I don’t know Harry. You know him best, what do you think would get a reaction out of him big enough for him to do something about it?”

Harry shrugged; he’d definitely have to think about it.

Liam reached out to squeeze his shoulder encouragingly, “you’ll think of something”

They walked back together, Liam’s arm thrown around his shoulder.

“Try to stop a bit with the handsy stuff Haz, if you’re always there he’ll never realise how much he misses you when you’re not.”

Harry gaped at him for a second, because that sounded painfully accurate, now that he thought about it.

With a distracted nod of his head, he’s tugged back inside the room where the others are.

Louis jumped up from the sofa at the sight of the two of them walking in.

“Where have you two been?” he asked, sounding strangely stern.

“Uh, we were just – “

“Just chatting” Liam interrupted, smiling cheerfully at the others.

Louis frowned, “you couldn’t chat in here?” he was glowering. Harry realised startled that he was glaring at the arm Liam still had around him.

Blinking, he exchanged a look with Liam who was looking at him with a knowing expression as if he’d just realised the same thing Harry had.

He could feel the grin growing on his face and he turned it, shoving his face against Liam’s shoulder in order to hide his laughter.

He could feel Liam shaking too and he saw from the corner of his eyes, his hand going up to his mouth in order to stop the giggles coming out.

Louis however didn’t really find anything amusing.

“What’s so funny?” he asked, voice snippy.

“yeah, what’s up with you guys? I wanna know what’s so funny too!” Niall said, ignoring the still glowering Louis standing next to him.

“Nothing, nothing” Liam said once he’d calmed down a bit, going to sit down on the now empty sofa.

“Haz?” Liam asked, eyes questioning.

“yeah, yeah” Harry nodded, as if to say I got it, and plopped himself down on the sofa next o him.

“What?” Both Nial and Louis asked, thought the latter’s tone was a bit more curt.

Liam and Harry only shook their heads in response, Harry grinning idiotically with Liam smiling happily next to him.

“You guys are so weird” Zayn quipped, though he was smiling amusedly.

Minutes later they were all ushered back into the recording room, where they spent the rest of the day going over songs repeatedly, practicing until it was perfect.

Harry couldn’t help but notice that Louis was in a bit of a mood for the rest of the day and he chastised himself on not thinking of it earlier.

Both Louis and Harry had always been a bit possessive of each other, everybody knew, but for some reason, maybe because he was older, he was a lot more protective over Harry, more territorial. It was obvious now; the best way to get Louis to admit that he had at least some non-platonic feelings for Harry was to make him jealous.

After his reaction today, Harry didn’t think it would be too hard.


	4. Part 3

An engenious plan Part 3  
yaaaay, finished just in time to watch the x factor final.

Summary:Harry wants Louis, and he knows just how to get him.

Part 3

Harry had always been a popular kid, he was sweet and he was lovable, and he spent his GCSE years at school being fawned over by enthusiastic girls, and being teased for it by his mates, all the while grinning happily, because affection wasn’t something he ever passed up.

And then he’d met the boys, and maybe they weren’t as affectionate as Harry (not at the beginning at least) but they never said no to hugs, and Louis – probably because he had four little sisters – liked to cuddle just as much as Harry did.

They were a match made in heaven really.

Harry spent that night in bed, staring up at the ceiling, the room dark around him. Making someone jealous seemed like an easy enough concept really, and sure, he didn’t exactly like the idea of playing those little mind games with someone he was in a relationship with, but then again, that was exactly the problem, he reminded himself with a huff; he and Louis weren’t in a relationship, and if he left it to Louis, they would probably be stuck in this more-than-friends-but-less-than-anything-more forever. So to appease his conscience, he decided to think about the plan as him being passive-aggressive, instead of what it really was. Unsurprisingly it didn’t help much.

Still, he wasn’t sure what to do exactly, and how he’d go about it. And really, what if Louis’ reaction was just a one time thing? A one-off?

With thoughts running wildly in his head, he fell into restless sleep.

When he woke up the next morning, things seemed a lot clearer, as if the answer had literally come to him overnight.

Girls were out of the cards. Though he loved flirting with them (with everyone really) he was never interested in them much, nothing that went past platonic, friendly banter, and Louis, who knew Harry as well as he did would become immediately suspicious if he were to see Harry flirting with girls left and right, and snogging a different one every night.

He thought that maybe he should start by taking Liam’s advice, thinking that maybe if he was a bit less affectionate with Louis and a bit more affectionate with the boys, that would be enough to get Louis to get a move on. That was, if he did have any feelings for Harry. He still had his doubts about it, which was why he decided to start small.

So it was a completely ordinary day when he decided to put his plan in motion. It was rainy and cloudy, and they had to wake up early because they had about a dozen interviews scheduled for that day.

 

With his eyes still glued together, Harry dragged himself out of bed and into the shower. He made sure to get ready quickly so that he had enough time to cook Louis and himself some breakfast.

He didn’t hear any noise when he walked past Louis’ room which very clearly meant the boy was still asleep (it was impossible not to know when Louis was awake, he wasn’t exactly the quietest).

He knocked loudly at his door, hoping the sound alone would wake him up; usually he’d go in, shake Louis gently, murmuring softly until he woke up, but today he refrained from it, hoping this would be a subtle enough move to not arise any suspicions.

“Lou?” he called when he still didn’t hear any signs of movements inside the room. There was the sound of a sleepy groan, but Harry knew Louis well enough to know he wasn’t waking up, he was just burying himself deeper into his pillow.

He entered the room reluctantly, fondly eyeing the tuft of chestnut brown hair that was showing from under the sheets.

“Lou? Lou c’mon, you have to get ready.” He said a bit more firmly.

There was another groan, and Harry watched, as Louis pulled the pillow over his head. Harry huffed.

“I’m gonna go downstairs to make breakfast. You better be ready by the time it’s finished.” He warned before leaving the room quickly, not seeing Louis peeking out of the covers with a confused expression on his face.

He made sure to have his back turned and to seem busy once he heard Louis coming down the stairs.

“Morning Curly!” Louis chirped. He never stayed sleepy for too long.

“Morning Lou” He greeted back, throwing a smile at Louis over his shoulder; heart beating nervously against his chest.

Once both the toast and the eggs were ready, he served the both of them and quickly got started on his own breakfast.

“How late are we?” Louis asked, grinning before attacking his breakfast with enthusiasm.

“Not late yet” Harry answered once he swallowed, well aware that Louis absolutely hated it when people chewed with their mouths open, or talked with their mouths full.

“Don’t know why you had to wake me up so early” Louis complained.

Harry rolled his eyes in response„ they had this same conversation every time they had to wake up early due to some event or commitment, which happened more often than not.

They finished their breakfast quickly after that, and were only a couple of minutes late in leaving the house.

“Morning” Harry greeted the others once in the car.

The others greeted him back sleepily, ignoring Louis’ cheerfulness as he got in next to Harry who was already sitting next to Liam.

Car journeys had always made Harry sleepy, ever since he was a child, so it wasn’t even five minutes later when he leaned his head on Louis’ shoulder. He argued with himself that it was because he didn’t want Louis to work out what he was doing. he ignored the fact that he was just making excuses for himself.

About half an hour later they were all split around the room, trying to do as many interviews in the time set as possible. Something about ‘divide and conquer’ as their manager liked to say. He didn’t really like individual interviews so every time he had to do one, he remembered just how grateful he was to have been put in a group.

He knew the others felt the same way too. It was standard for the boys to crash each other’s interviews. Talking loudly to each other across the room, pulling funny faces, or just walking towards where the other was and sitting on the arm of their chair or couch, or just plopping themselves onto each other’s laps wasn’t unusual, and no one even batted an eyelid at it anymore; not even the interviewers who were starting to learn to expect their crazy antics.

He was in one of his mid-interviews breaks, when he overheard Niall’s interview. They were talking about the Avengers movie for some reason Harry couldn’t be bothered to figure out. So, still chewing on his biscuit he walked over, obnoxiously squeezing himself next to Niall on the chair that was obviously made for one person only.

“I like that movie” he said, smiling happily whilst squirming on his seat to get comfortable.

“Ugh, Harry, get off!” Niall said after a few minutes of elbows bumping into ribs.

“Here” Harry mumbled, as he threw an arm around Niall’s shoulder.

“So you guys like superheroes then?” The interviewer asked, trying to get them back on track, it was slightly ridiculous how many times that happened.

“Oh yeah” Harry said enthusiastically, “Louis said he had a dream last night actually. That we were all superheroes.” He grinned, as Niall laughed next to him.

He saw the other boys quickly abandoning their own interviews in order to join them, Louis quickly pulling Zayn out of his place on the arm of the chair next to Harry.

“That’s true” Louis nodded, “I was superman,” everyone laughed at that, “Liam was the green lantern, and Harry here,” he reached for Harry’s hair, ruffling it “was the flash, which is just weird, cause he’s slow doing pretty much everything”

Louis grinned at Harry, though something in the look Louis sent him made him think there was a double meaning to his words.

Confused, he turned back to interviewer who was asking about Niall and Zayn.

“Oh,” Louis frowned, “they were actually the villains”

“Hey” Niall protested in midst of their laughter.

After a few seconds though, Harry took pity on him, “aww poor Nialler,” he patted his shoulder, “Nialler’s not a villain, I mean look at him!” he reached for Niall’s face, hands squishing his cheeks until his lips protruded into a pout.

“He’s just too cute” Harry said, the others agreeing quickly.

“Harreeh” Niall whined, shaking off from his hold.

Harry chuckled ruffling his hair right after Liam, Zayn following, while Niall just grumbled, not bothering to fix it again.

Smiling Harry turned to Louis, noticing – with a certain amount of satisfaction – that the boy was frowning, eyebrows hunched together, though he smiled quickly once he saw that Harry was smiling at him.

They hurried out once their interviews were finished, all of them eager to get home.

Walking next to Zayn and behind the others, he noticed the looks Louis kept sending him over his shoulder, and looked down, trying to hide his smile.

The journey back home was quiet once again, the boys all worn out from the busy day, Harry didn’t even last two minutes, knocked out on Zayn’s shoulder. Too soon later, he was being awakened by Louis, who was running his fingers through his hair just the way Harry liked.

“Haz. Hazza, c’mon we’re here”

Harry disentangled himself from Zayn, following Louis on a daze.

With an arm around his waist, Louis guided him all the way to his room, helping him out of his clothes, before tucking him in bed. He left the room with soft “g’night haz” and Harry smiled into his pillow, sleep beckoning him.


	5. Part 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Very sorry about the delay, hope you all enjoy the chapter.

It was a few days later when Harry woke up to an hyper excited Louis jumping up and down on his bed, yelling “wake up, wake up, wake up!”

Harry would be mad, but he couldn’t exactly blame Louis for his enthusiasm. It was an exciting day for them after all. Still Harry just didn’t have the kind of energy Louis did, especially so early in the morning.

 

“I’m awake” he groaned out into his pillow, slow and groggy, and hoping the bed would stop moving so much so he could go back to sleep.

He could feel Louis’ eyes on him as the movement stopped for a few seconds. He felt Louis poking his side curiously before declaring “you’re not!” and the jumping up and down re-started.

“Harreeh, c’mon!” But Harry only turned his head the other way, determined to catch another half an hour of sleep.

He should’ve known, of course, that Louis wouldn’t let it go. If there was one thing Louis hated was being ignored.

Harry yelped, startled at the sudden weight on top of him. Louis was actually standing on him, on his lower back, bouncing on his feet gently yet insistently, so Harry was forced to give up his sleep.

“Alright, alright” he said grumpily, throwing the covers off of himself, “I’m gonna go take a shower” he padded across the room to get his towel, rubbing at his eyes.

“Great!” Louis clapped his hands, “hurry up then Harold, you still have to cook me breakfast”

With a half hearted scowl sent Louis’ way, Harry left the room and entered the bathroom, not bothering to lock the door behind him. Locking doors wasn’t something they ever really did.

He had just finished checking the temperature of the water when he heard the creak of the door opening.

“What now Lou?” he rolled his eyes.

“Nothing!” Louis chirped back.

Harry’s eyes narrowed, Louis’ voice sounded entirely too innocent. Immediately suspicious he peeked out of the shower box to see Louis, sat on top of the sink, legs crossed Indian style, staring back at him with what could only be described as an adorable smile on his face.

Shaking his head, Harry went back to his shower.

“Ever heard of that amazing thing called privacy?” he asked teasingly.

“If you wanted privacy, you would’ve locked the door” Louis called out, voice casual.

True. He still did sometimes, mostly when he needed some… well, some Harry time, but it was usually when Louis wasn’t home.

He learnt early on, that locking doors around Louis would only be a source of frustration for him. Louis seemed to sense it, almost. There had been many times at the start of their living together where Louis would knock incessantly on the door until Harry had to leave his bed or his shower to go open it.

At first, he’d come over with excuses. He either needed to take a piss or to get his hair drier, or to urgently brush his teeth. And then he’d just started forgoing the excuses. He’d just burst in, find some weird place to sit (like laying about in baths) and talk to Harry. Harry had come to the conclusion that Louis really didn’t know a thing about personal space (he kind of felt sorry for Louis’ sisters).

Of course, back then he’d been a fool of a 16 year old, with the hugest, stupidest most obvious crush ever, so he hadn’t minded (though it may have taken him a while to stop blushing whenever it happened). And now, 2 years later, it had simply become habit.

“What are you so excited for anyway? We’ve done it before.” Not that he wasn’t excited; it was just that his excitement usually showed up a bit later in the day.

“Shooting a music video is always an exciting thing young Harold.”

Harry grinned, though he couldn’t see him, he was pretty sure that Louis was twiddling his thumbs, a chiding, wise expression on his face.

“Have you quite finished Harry Edward?” Louis asked a little while later, and this time, Harry could hear the impatience that laced his tone.

Harry rolled his eyes; “if you’re that hungry, go make breakfast yourself” he called out.

There was a beat of silence in which Harry realised his voice had come out sounding a bit harsher than he had meant it to.

Before he could apologise, there was the sound of the door closing. The soft click of it sounded strangely loud in the now silent room.

Cursing under his breath, Harry quickly finished up in the bathroom. He got dressed in less than 3 minutes and proceeded to pace around his bedroom. He wasn’t sure what to do now, whether he should just go downstairs and apologise or just look at it as another step in his ‘stop mollycoddling him’ plan.

The thing was, he only wanted to distance himself from Louis a bit, not get into fights with him!

Sighing dejectedly, he walked downstairs and into the kitchen cautiously, eyes spying the grumpy looking Louis as he shoved his spoon into his bowl of cereal with a bit more force than necessary.

“Lou?” he called out warily, watching as Louis lifted his eyes from his food to look at Harry, before quickly looking down again.

“Hey” he greeted quietly. It was such a stark contrast from his previous good mood, that it made Harry cringe with guilt.

“Lou…”

“No, it’s fine Harry”

“No – Lou, it’s not. I’m sorry I snapped at you”

Louis nodded, though he still had the expression of a wounded puppy on his face.

“Lou c’mon, don’t look like that” Harry pleaded.

“Like what?”

“Like /that/” he said pointedly.

“You’ve been… you’ve been a bit weird Harry. Are you okay?”

Harry froze. So he had noticed.

“Yeah m’fine. I was just tired, and I ended up snapping at you. I’m sorry.” He apologised again, though this time it was more heartfelt.

Louis looked at him carefully, lips opening as if to say something before changing his mind and simply nodding.

Harry licked his lips nervously, “would you like some breakfast then?”

“I’ve got some.” He said, face haughty, though there was a small smile playing on the corner of his lips.

Harry grinned, “I meant some /real/ breakfast Lou”

Louis stuck his tongue out at him, though he nodded all the same. It was only another half an hour later when they left the house together, their band mates waiting for them outside.

Working never really felt like work. Shooting the ‘Live while we’re young’ video was definitely the most fun Harry had in weeks. He’d spent the whole day running around with Niall and Liam, playing football and jumping around in the water.

If there was one thing dampening Harry’s spirits was the fact that his plan didn’t seem to be working as well as it had in the beginning. He was lucky now if he caught the slight tightening of Louis’ jaw or the way his shoulders seemed to tense whenever Harry hugged one of the boys for a bit longer than normal. Liam too had been helping in subtle ways. He’d throw his arm around Harry’s shoulder when they were walking around and poke his sides whenever Harry sat close to him.

Harry was honestly grateful. Sometimes he felt silly, doing what he was doing, as if his intentions were displayed around in bold, neon letter, and everybody could see it, everybody knew.

It was with a broody expression that he slumped into the car at the end of the day. The boys were just as quiet this time around as they were in the morning, too exhausted from playing around like they were a bunch of seven year olds. Even Louis was quiet, though he seemed far less tired than the rest of them, eyes open wide and fixed on the glowing screen of his phone.

They were the last ones to be dropped off, and it was with legs heavy as marble, that he followed after Louis, pace sluggish and eyes blinking unfocused.

He heard the click of the door as Louis unlocked it. He walked into the dark house, kicking his shoes off and tripping over them immediately after.

“Tired Haz?” Harry blinked, happily daydreaming over the softness of Louis’ voice and the gentle touch of his hand on Harry’s shoulder.

He nodded, “c’mon then.” They walked together upstairs and Harry quickly shed his clothes, falling onto his bed, face first and on top of the covers.

He heard a sigh and then someone was tucking him in, sheets up to his waist, and there were fingers running through his hair slowly.

“Night Haz”

He fell asleep before he could mutter the good night wish back.

.

As soon as he woke up the next day, Harry realized they were late. Cursing his phone and himself and a lot of other things that actually had nothing to do with his tardiness, he ran into Louis’ room, “up, up Lou! C’mon we’re late!” he ran back out before Louis had even opened his eyes. They had fifteen minutes left, and he was pretty sure neither he nor Louis could get ready that fast. They definitely wouldn’t have time for breakfast.

“Lou, come on! We have to go” he said, forcefully pulling the sheets away from him, though all the older boy did in response was curl his legs up, mumbling a “go away Haz”

With an aggravated sigh, Harry slid Louis’ wardrobe door open, quickly picking out some pants and a shirt and throwing them at Louis. “Come on Lou, we have like, five minutes” he pleaded, watching as Louis scrunched up his face before blinking his eyes open.

Harry ignored the pang in his chest at the sight of the sleepy blue eyes.

“Don’t wanna” he mumbled.

Huffing angrily, Harry bit out “whatever. Stay then” and walked out.

Though Harry was usually very patient (especially with Louis, he was pretty much the only one who could put up with him 24/7 without going completely mental) he was quite a bit tired himself and he’d had enough of people telling them off for being late.

“Where’s Louis?” was the first thing they asked once he entered the car.

Harry sighed, it felt like he’d done that way too many times already, and the day had barely started.

When Louis finally showed up twenty minutes later, he looked unusually tired (Harry was pretty sure he hadn’t had time to take a shower), and as soon as Niall piped up with a “you’re late” Louis was throwing him that haughty, almost arrogant look, that immediately shut him up. Obviously he hadn’t had time to have his tea either.

Harry sighed. They were in for a great day.

It was around noon when Harry finally caved, asking someone to ‘please get Louis a cup of tea yeah?’

After that, Louis’ – and by extension – everyone’s day got better. Everyone’s but Harry. By the end of the day, Harry was not in the best mood.

“So do you guys wanna go get some dinner?” Liam asked later that day, when they were being driven back home.

There was a chorus of yeses and sure, as the others agreed, except for Harry who was moodily staring out the window.

“Haz?”

Harry shrugged, “Nah, don’t really feel like it tonight”

“Aww c’mon Harry! Join us” That was Zayn.

“Yeah Hazza, come with us” Louis asked.

“I don’t want to” He said, voice stressed. There was a pause, and then “are you alright Harry?” Liam threw him a concerned expression.

“’M fine” he grumbled.

“Are you sure? I’m sure Louis wouldn’t mind going home with you, if you’re not feeling well”

“I’m fine” he snapped, going back to stare out the window and ignoring the guilty feeling in his gut as he realised how quiet the boys had gone after his little outburst. He felt a hand playing with his hair, and saw from the corner of his eyes the understanding look Liam was throwing him. He leaned into the comforting touch, and it was with a swooping feeling of triumph, that he saw the way Louis glared at Liam, hands clenched on his lap.

He got out of the car quickly, with a last cuddle from Liam and barely a goodbye said. He stormed into his room minutes later, pacing from one side of it to the other, angry and frustrated and confused. He plopped himself down on the edge of his bed, hand running through his hair and mouth pursing thoughtfully. The day hadn’t really gone how he wanted it too.

Obviously it was time to move on to bigger plans.


End file.
